DEV Community: Dylan Balagtas

Support perspective from a Developer

Dylan Balagtas — Thu, 27 Jul 2023 04:13:38 +0000

Landed My First Job

Grinded non-stop 6 months , finally landed a job in a well known tech company here in the Philippines

I Had Expectations:

As I was inspired by some known software engineer vloggers in Youtube
I expected to solve problems then build the fix and make it a reality

As what i learned during my 6 month sprint I expected what i was learning was what i was going to experience in work too

Rolled in as a support

I expected I was to develop some JS as I got in as a Node JS developer

I was placed in a boot camp that was teaching a software called IBM MAXIMO had little to no code (during my bootcamp)
when got rolled in to my project I was rolled in as a support
Basically we had the following tasks:
- there were reocurring task like capturing logs, inventory snapshot and etc..
- then there were tickets handling
- tickets that been sent out from users stating an unexpected event during their time using the software
- as supports its our task to investigate what happened , why it occured, and how to prevent this error to reoccur
- issues were more like queries of users asking why this and some were as easy as data correction ## Sadly I've Realized This Wasnt For Me Near a year i've been debating myself if this was what i wanted for months i have kept it to my self. > Which backfired me to close to burnout even have plans to resign on my first job without even reaching a year!

Luckily I had coworkers who checked in on me time to time especially on times I seemed off : with that I had the encouragement to open up my feelings with proj manger

The Little Chat with My Project Manager:

Opened up, right at the start of the conversation, as I was told before to remove the heavy stone first.

He started off thanking me for oppening up

Because most people dont open up and aren't aware we can actually take action to fix like

moving to a different project that has the tech I wanted to work
or stay in the same proj but transfer to a different team

Thanks for my proj manager i was given the opportunity to move to development

and when my first day started as a developer: it gave off a different a flame
in terms of eagerness , the fire rekindle back in
and since then I promised myself to not keep my feelings and speak up to others to get insight and not be blinded by my own

Support vs Development

The Same

actually Support and Dev aren't really that different, its funny how we are actually going through the same process:

requirement gathering
forming the solution
development of solution
testing in differnet environment
get it approved from higher up
then get it moved to prod

The Difference

Support
- is more of a : fix the issue that is blocking the user to work
Developer
- to modify application to suite the users needs and wants

Advantage of Support

Learn empathy with the user and learn how to build relations with user
Learn Data Correction and Data Analyzing
- when i entered I had no former trainning of SQL but as Data was important for the user and for the support to understand on where it was changed or modified
- it was a great asset to get use to SQL
Learned debugging skills
- when it comes to support, it isnt about memorizing every solution for every issue
- but atually its about understanding the system and learning how to take advantage of tools to debug and pin point what caused the issue
Learn the Importance of Documentation
- as time to resolve issue is as important, documenting a possible to reoccur issue helps future support members to be able to answer right away or look in the right place

Summary:

Despite I spent months in a role that I didn't like, but I'm thankful I did

as we should see every situation an opportunity to learn
- as in some cases those dreams isn't reachable switch where when we want we can just switch right away
- I was lucky I had a understanding project manager and had an open slot for Dev team
- In cases of options are limited, I suggest learn as much in where you are
  - as I can assure you, you may say the learnings arent profitable
  - I can assure you you will learn something there that will be handy in your next ventures

Write It Down

Dylan Balagtas — Sun, 18 Jul 2021 04:54:18 +0000

Everyone has their idea may it be about a video game or the food they last ate, or even the formula to solve cancer

We all have ideas and they come and go, in times when we want them and in most times when we don't want them.

Sometimes it comes in the most inappropriate times, like when we are trying to sleep.

These ideas just circle in your head, bouncing around your skull like a banshee that wants to get out.

But it doesn't, it sits and camps there for a while.

Well let me tell you the only way you can remove that nasty camper
Is by writing it down, may it be Digital or physical

Somehow it just transfers once you put it down. The beauty of writing down.

For me, the best ideas show ups when I'm trying to sleep

That's why I bring always a notebook, The Notebook of Ideas
If it's not there I have my smartphone with a note-taking app.

But it doesn't happen during sleeping only

It can happen in the shower, while you're walking, while you're commuting

But what's common of all situations, most ideas come when you are in a silent place

Where you can talk to yourself

think, think, think.

The sad thing is this ideas come and go, once you get distracted or even think of something else, your idea is gone

Lucky you if ever you'll get to have the chance to grasp that idea again

Again a reason why you should write it down

“Like Yow right down now not later nor tomorrow”

Now is the best time before it's gone

You won't want to waste a wonderful idea

Every Idea is important

No matter how small the solution you came up with can solve.

No matter what your race, your gender, your sexuality, or your educational background.

Its a solution to a problem

And that's helpful

It may even be incomplete

Allowing you to branch out and research more to better up your idea

Ideas from others

Talking to other people. Fitting their shoes.

Helps you practice thinking. Helps you and your friend or whoever you are talking to unrivaled wonderful ideas

The power of having different brains!

Ideas are like a jigsaw puzzle, Sometimes they fit, sometimes they don't.
But when it does fit, it forms a beautiful image.

Conclusion

You'll never know you'll have that one idea that can change people's lives, or even change your idea.

And you'll never know when you'll form it. And you'll never know when you'll forget about it

So keep a notebook, make it as small as possible that it fits your back pocket with that pen of yours

Because I know you're a thinker because we are all thinkers.

And all these problems we face can only be solved by sharing and contributing our ideas to the world, and collaborating with others!

Revive Your Old Computer With Linux

Dylan Balagtas — Wed, 24 Mar 2021 15:49:11 +0000

My Journey To Linux

So at first, I was given the privilege of borrowing my GrandMothers laptop,

it was a gen 2 I3, and I guess was 4 GB ram with windows 7 installed.

I still have it until today, planning to replace it with a better Laptop for my Grandma. Soon!

Anyways I tried to install windows 10, knowing all the new features it possessed. Checking the internet: it would only need 4 GB ram ( minimum ).

But I was foolish to understand how minimum works.

So I tried, got it installed, and for a while, it was going fine. Until I installed the application from chrome to text editors to even IDE.

Back then fell in love with Jet Brains IDE, but after reading a post about the downside of using IDE as a new self-taught..... well that's another story

I was having trouble with the number of resources my application uses and with windows 10 installed, it also pre-used many many RAM.

So I had to find an alternative, and then I found UBUNTU

Solely I switched to Ubuntu due to the terminal and its architecture somewhat Mac-like because it was Unix-based.

But apparently, Ubunutu also requires a minimum of 4GB ram.

So I did some research...

Don't get me wrong Ubuntu works beautifully, very appealing but I just wanted something less resource consuming,

There gotta be a better solution to this.

googled down to a search "top lightweight distro for old computer"

The Choices were:

Lubuntu (get the ubuntu feeling, but lighter)
- RAM: 1 GB of RAM
- CPU: Pentium 4 or Pentium M or AMD K8 or higher
Xubuntu
- RAM: 512 MB (1 GB recommended)
- Processor: Pentium Pro or AMD Athlon

The choices were impressive with having a minimum ram requirement of 500MB

imagine that you get 3.5GB of ram out of your 4GB
compared to using a graphics-heavy distro like KDE, Ubuntu, or Plasma

One thing I love about Linux is the option of having a SWAP partition, an extra chance for additional ram using your hard disk, how cool is that

Allocating some part of your hard disk you get a machine worth 8GB of ram (including the swap partition)

But here's the catch, to get the performance you need to remove visually appealing traits, like transitions from one workspace to another (something that's also beautiful in the Linux community)

but It was worth it, for my sake, I struggled at coding while opening browsers, this is a game-changer

so I made the switch, and My lappy outperformed higher-end laptop in my school, I would prefer to use my lappy.

What is Linux

Linux is a family of open-source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds.

The only important thing you need to know is Linux Distro

A Linux distribution (often abbreviated as distro) is an operating system made from a software collection that is based upon the Linux kernel and, often, a package management system.

Reasons why I love Linux

Swap Partition
Customizable
Optimization
can revive old outdated hardware
moving, deleting, copying are so faster than Windows around 100x
Gaming in Linux is coming fast, Linux Gaming

Some Downside of Linux you might want to consider

No adobe application and some other applications
1. but there is a workaround for this
2. and some alternatives applications
You'll have to embrace free software to get the most of Linux.

Which distro

what is distro
Linux is just a kernel created by .....

there are thousands of Distros like Linux Mint a Ubuntu based distro.

you'll have to choose whether you want performance or looks, or BOTH

Currently, I'm loving
Arch Linux

My comment on this distro though, it would need your time. But high reward I promise,

! Ill make another blog about this but

the bottom line Arch is such bloat less, you get to choose how you want it to look and how it runs lol.

from choosing Login manager to window manager, to bars.

For those who like looks, you can check out reddit.com/r/unixporn to see what you can do with Linux

Summary:

Recommended for newbies: Linux Mint or Linux Mint XFCE
Want lightweight: Lubuntu or Xubuntu
Want Looks: Elementary
Want Control: Arch Linux (needs your time)

How to start

well, I highly recommend practice installing using VM, for beginners Oracle VM is okay, newbie-friendly compared to other competitors.

after getting the hang of it ( which I know you guys can do it, most installation are just pressing next next next)

Don't want to take the full Jump!

Dual boot

You can Dual Boot. and get both worlds ( you can boot opening Windows, or to Linux)

Some Personal Probs with Dual Boot

there are just some times where Linux doesn't have the software you want in Windows, so I was forced to use Windows, so the process will be like while running Linux I would have to restart and boot via Windows
Passing files in Dual Boot is a pain in the ass,

that's why I went fully Linux

Because there are alternative applications to all applications (most free or with free version)

What I think

Been running Linux for more than 2 years now and even on my new laptop. ( better specs than my last laptop)

Had no regrets tbh as, a developer developing is just simpler, compared to developing in Windows.

Don't Give Up

Dylan Balagtas — Fri, 08 Jan 2021 03:55:47 +0000

We tend to forget why we started

We then create our own route misleading to somewhere we didn’t expect . Frustrating ourselves, even up to the point blaming ourselves, calling our hardworking selves STUPID.

Not saying its bad to change plans when necessary

But sometimes we forget why we started and cut short to a inch away of achieving our goal.

As a I wise teacher once told me “ a person who doesn't plan, plans to fail”.

As a practitioner of Martial Arts, there are days where it seems I haven’t gain any improvement, which can be frustrating sometimes, I mean all the times.

But little did I know that improvements can be any size or any shape.

That's why we have test or we like to call sparring so we can look back on the things we learned and and see where we are.

We are hard working people especially you yourself. No one will ever know how hard you work,but only yourself. So you need to congratulate yourself, by going on a food trip, play some video games, simply TAKE A BREAK!

Appreciate every small victory you conquered.

It don't matter if you win by an inch or a mile. Winning's winning - Dominic Toretto

Tip #1:

try Bullet Journal and list down the achievements you accomplished, so that one day if you think you haven't made any progress you can just flip to that page and see how far you went.

Tip #2:

keep your goal written, visibly close to you everyday.

Conclusion

When you feel like giving up remember why you started. And remember you may not be there but you were closer than yesterday.

You Can Read More Than You Think

Dylan Balagtas — Tue, 08 Dec 2020 15:48:46 +0000

Photo by Christin Hume on Unsplash

Reading can be daunting . Hearing people reading 1 book a year to over 1 book a month. We know how beneficial a book can be, yet we are still lazy to finish the book or even start reading it.

We tend to collect and let it dust on the bookshelf. Feeling accomplished by seeing our books aligned together on the shelf. But deep inside we know we should have read at least one of the books.

I too had problem reading books, there were a time I realized the number of books I got to finish were countable with just using my fingers. And even in times, when asked how many books have I read - I would reach out at the back of my head and find NOTHING.

I tried to create a habit during my long travels going to my internship. I glued my habit of reading “while waiting for the bus” “while I'm in the bus” “while I'm riding the jeep”. My habit of reading was too glued on those situations. But when Covid-19 outbreak started at February, workforce started to work from home, and as an internship, my internship went on a halt.

1 month is all rainbow and sunshine then later on you realize its been 3 months now, and so on until you remember that your cousins birthday party at that location was last year. Last year that felt like yesterday.

Don’t get me wrong there were some great things that happened to me during the pandemic, But that would be another story.

I’ve notice even the struggle to read at least one before this year ends. I wanted to accomplish at least one book. Since my internship halt I had started many books but never tend to finish.

So I stepped back, to see where am I doing this wrong. I tested my ability to read a page around 90 sec, not so interesting but once I multiply the number of pages it had. With some simple math I found out I can finish the book within 7 hrs. How interesting is that.

Within 7 hrs theoretically I can finish that. What more if I read at least 1 hr a day I would accomplish this within the week. So I created a spreadsheet so that in the future books I’ll just smack it into my spreadsheet and determine how long will it take for me to accomplish the task.

Once you know how much time is required to read, you get the sense how fast you can actually accomplish and finish the book. The goal becomes attainable, instead from reaching a star you realize it was just a light of a tower up a hill. Something attainable.

But the question how are you going to keep on reading. I tend to visualize and schedule my one hour a day reading by dividing it into 4, giving me 15 minutes to read. Just 15 minutes equally distributed within the day will feel like a simple YouTube video. But not knowing that I got to accomplish already 60 hrs.

SUMMARY

Reading can feel daunting especially seeing how thick or reading the number of pages. But once you realize (the amount of seconds it take for you to read one page) * (the amount of pages in the book) divide with 360 you get the hrs you need to finish the book.

Plan and schedule ahead, keep a regular schedule make it a habit by sticking it to a time. With consistency it becomes a third hand. Want to read a hour a day, don't do it in one go, but divide it.

The Laptop less Developer

Dylan Balagtas — Fri, 03 Jul 2020 04:13:20 +0000

The Problem

I've been active on Twitter lately

👉 Follow me:

@dylan_balagtas

Supper active like non stop scrolling down my feed 😂

And I saw a tweet

Mc Art Neil Gamutin

@mcartneil

@WellPaidGeek That's true, but without L.A.P.T.O.P - the more we struggle to understand the code just like me. Maybe I should just watch on youtube with searching fundamentals.

14:01 PM - 01 Jul 2020

0 2

"what about those who doesn't have access to a laptop/computer"

This is my classmate, and I know him as one of the most passionate developers I meet.

And he had the opportunity during his internship to get hold of a laptop/computer.

Sadly due to the COVID-19 our internship were set to a hold.

It hit me hard as I always complained how my laptop doesn't have a graphic card, needs constant electricity, heavier than a math textbook.

While I had a friend who was struggling doing the things he is passionate about because he doesn't have a laptop.

So I thought through, made some research and made this

How to become a laptopless developer

One way to learn as a developer, or in anything actually. You need to apply on the things you've learned

And how are we going to do that?

Well lucky for you, I made this list on awesome tools you can use with just your phone

These are chosen base on searching the word code in Google Play Store-
This may vary on OS

The Review

QuickEdit

🎆Features:

Syntax highlighting
10,000+ lines support
Small size 2.2mb
Multi tab editing

🔑 My comment:

Fair perspective this is just an editor Not really and IDE but just so you can edit

✅ Pro:

Works offline
And small storage

❌ Con:

Doesn't have a debugger, you can't tell whether you're writing your code correctly or not

Dcoder

🎆 Features:

Rich Text Editor with Syntax highlighting.(Code Editor)
Line number, Auto indent, Autocomplete Parenthesis.
Undo Redo.
File Open/Save.
Custom Suggestion View.
Multiple Language Support.
User input for languages like C, C++, Java, Php, JavaScript, Node.js and others.
Active debug view for faster access to Output.
Thoroughly designed Algorithm problems to improve coding Skills and make programmers industry ready.
Leader Board: To know where you stand amongst the vast Dcoder community.
Custom Menu Drawer, Custom Code Editor Themes, Editable font Size for Editor and much more!!

🔑 My Comment*:*
✅ Pro:

Have terminal
Social network

❌ Con:

Limited due to cloud base storage
online

Acode

🎆 Features:

NOTE: You cannot run programs other than HTML, MarkDown and JavaScript, means you cannot run Python, PHP, Java, C/C++, etc, but you can use Termux along side Acode to run these programs

No ads
Edit any file from your device.
GitHub support
FTP support (No SFTP yet, plans to add it later)
Supports syntax highlighting for 100+ programming languages
Dozens of themes
User friendly
In-app HTML/Mark Down preview
Interactive JavaScript console
In app file browser
Open source
Supports 50,000+ lines
Fast work flow
Open more than one file
Customizable
Keyboard shortcuts

SPCK

🎆Features:

Clone public or private (requires app password/token) repositories
Quick snippets keyboard for faster code edits
Git client integration (checkout/pull/push/commit/log)
Diff viewer for git-enabled projects
Preview web pages on your device
Project or file code searching
Code syntax analysis and smart auto-completer
Code completion and context provider (signature/definition lookup)
Auto code-indentation (using js-beautify)
Light/dark themes available
Integrated JavaScript console
Preview markdown
Export/import project/files to zip file
Works offline (fixed)
CSS Color selector
Cool JavaScript labs to play with

🔑 My comment:
✅ Pro:

Good for Web Development -
⚠️ Has dev tools for web

❌ Con:

Can't run programs that are not HTML, CSS and JS.

🔑 Conclusion

Eventually if you want to practice on a particular language other than JS
- DCoder is your man
- Alternatively you can use REPL it's mobile friendly
⚠️ But I found out you can actually run your own terminal using Termux

and can even install python

Which will be another topic for another day

👉Follow me to get update of that blog!
Web Development
- I'll go with SPCK Editor
  - ✅ Its just like vscode in your phone
  - ✅ Also has Emmet!
  - ✅ Plus to add works offline!
  - ✅ Has web tools!
Simple Editor
- Acode is your man
  - ✅ Just have better features
  - ✅ Like the extra toolbar for common movements
  - ✅ Intellisence

Tell me more if I missed any!

Community Lockdown - and what to do NEXT

Dylan Balagtas — Mon, 16 Mar 2020 08:08:20 +0000

Cover Photo by Carl Heyerdahl on Unsplash

COVID - 19

Currently, the world is facing a pandemic called the COVID-19

It's spreading like wildfire, in order for control, some countries are establishing Community Lockdown, up to Total Lockdown.

In my place we are having a Community Lockdown, starting today until April 13, 2020, and if only the pandemic gets under control.

I'm currently undergoing an internship, which has pushed their employees to WFH(Work From Home). But apparently interns are strictly not allowed to WFH.

Interns either get terminated early or had to wait for 1 month until things get controlled.

Plans

So I have around 1 month of free time. and this might be the best time for me to be productive (and you). To not waste time, as this - is an opportunity, a head start of being someone better later on the path.

I'll be constantly reminding myself to work hard, by uploading weekly updates, and daily tweets.

Bloggers are important!

Dylan Balagtas — Fri, 20 Dec 2019 14:04:01 +0000

Why? Because they are the risk takers, the front liners, those who experience things so you don't have to experience them. and I'm literally thankful for that.

There are so many times they had helped me, and I'm sure they had helped you too!

How do they do it?

By passing down Wisdom!!

" Wisdom, something you wont achieve by looking, but by experiencing "

And You Can Too!

truly a new form of way to pass down wisdom, can be accessible to anyone!

Want to start a podcast?

get your phone and start recording!

Want to Vlog?

Get your phone and start videoing!

Want to blog?

Go to Medium and start publishing!

My personal Goal

I want to be an inspiration to others to do more!

I want others to read, hear, and watch me do things, to inspire them to do the same, to do more!

I want to return the favor to the community.

Don't settle for great, when you can have the best!

quote from Sony Experia

I want to share my new learning to be a motivation to hunger your taste for something new, to contribute the sea of knowledge, and understand via Feynman technique. Because I believe that the person next to you, your neighbor, your classmate, you parents, your siblings or just the boy across the street. Needs you to share your learning, your experience, because I know, surely, we can help them.

Whats yours?

My First Blog

Dylan Balagtas — Tue, 10 Dec 2019 02:07:27 +0000

So this will be my starting point of my new adventure, venturing out the world of storytelling or in other words info spreader. (seem to like that word better)

I'm totally excited for this adventure!

A little Background

Who I Am In General

Im currently 18 (2019), a student of CITE Tech. Inst.,Inc. , here in the Philippines 🇵🇭. Im currently studying under Computer Engineering, and Im inspired to one day teach children the beauty of coding. Or just want to help the community in a way, how they helped me.

Why My Course

I do love problem solving that was one main reason why i entered the world of coding and computer technology.

Contact Me Anytime

Im open to any questions, or need someone to share too im there for you brother!

twitter: @dylan_balagtas
github: mcdylanb

DEV Community: Dylan Balagtas

Support perspective from a Developer

Landed My First Job

I Had Expectations:

Rolled in as a support

The Little Chat with My Project Manager:

Support vs Development

The Same

The Difference

Advantage of Support

Summary:

Write It Down

Every Idea is important

Ideas from others

Conclusion

Revive Your Old Computer With Linux

My Journey To Linux

The Choices were:

What is Linux

Reasons why I love Linux

Some Downside of Linux you might want to consider

Which distro

Summary:

How to start

Dual boot

What I think

Don't Give Up

Tip #1:

Tip #2:

Conclusion

You Can Read More Than You Think

SUMMARY

The Laptop less Developer

The Problem

The Review

QuickEdit

Dcoder

Acode

SPCK

🔑 Conclusion

Tell me more if I missed any!

Community Lockdown - and what to do NEXT

COVID - 19

Plans

Links

Reasons why I'll post updates

Bloggers are important!

How do they do it?

By passing down Wisdom!!

And You Can Too!

My personal Goal

Whats yours?

My First Blog

A little Background

Who I Am In General

Why My Course

Contact Me Anytime